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lesson
1 | lesson 2 | lesson
3 Instructional
Techniques
Lesson
1: Self-Questioning
Strategy
Self-Questioning
is a very simple but productive strategy. While reading chunks of
text, students write down questions they have about what they read and
what will happen next.
The
teacher supplies sticky notes for students and asks them to supply the
paper. The first time the strategy is used, model the strategy and
then guide them through it. The teacher should use the strategy when
reading aloud to the class. Before reading the novel or story, tell
students to take the following supplies out on their desk.
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Pen or pencil
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Paper
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Sticky notes
Then
ask students to clear their desks of all other distracting material.
Explain to students that they will be writing questions down as the
teacher reads to them. The questions will fall into three categories:
questions that are immediately answered in the book, questions that
are eventually answered in the book, and questions that are never
answered in the book. Questions that can be answered immediately in
the text are usually factual questions. Some questions are
not immediately answered and force readers to infer the answer, making
reference to both the book and their previous knowledge. Students also
recognize that some questions will not be answered in the book,
forcing students to predict the answers.
Students will write their questions on their sticky notes in their Readers Notebook, and the teacher writes
them on the board.
Next,
show the class the cover of the book and read them the title. Ask the
students to write down on the sticky notes what questions they might
have about the book. While they are writing, the teacher writes
his/her questions, modeling for the students while reading aloud to
the class.
The
students share some or all of their questions on the board before
beginning to read.
The
teacher begins to read the book and pauses after reading every
paragraph or each page, asking for questions. The teacher waits
while
students write down any questions that come to mind. They write these
questions on sticky notes and put them on their notebook paper. The
teacher should continue to write down questions as well.
When
students find an answer to one of their questions, they will remove
the sticky note from their notebook paper. By removing the sticky
note, the students have a physical sign that they have progressed in
their reading by seeing that they have answered a question.
There
are a few variations of this exercise.
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Students can write questions for the duration of the read aloud. This
can take anywhere from fifteen to thirty minutes. The students then
share their questions that have been answered. Ask the students to
write all of their unanswered questions on the board. They take the
sticky notes from the questions that have been answered off their
notebook paper. Ask students to reflect and write about their
metacognitive process in their writer's journal after finishing
this process.
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Have the students use sticky notes while
the
teacher reads for the duration of approximately 30 minutes. Instead of
waiting until the end of the reading time to discuss the questions,
discuss the answered and unanswered questions every other time the
teacher stops and calls for questions. Pause for questions every
paragraph to every page. When students have mastered the concept and
are past the exposition section of the book, read a few pages before
breaking for questions.
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When students understand the concept fairly well, they can begin to
ask questions as they read independently. Students write the question
on sticky notes and put the notes right on the page where they have
the question. They can also put it on notebook paper if they want to,
but most students choose to put the sticky notes right in their books.
Students
discuss the impact the strategy has had on their success as a reader
and thinker. Students are asked to think about what is going on in
their mind when they are forming questions. The students write in
their journal about their own reading process. The lesson works on
student’s metacognition skills, multiple intelligence by helping a
variety of learners, student focus and organization, comprehension
with modeling and guidance, and transition to independence.
Students worked on these strategies with the teacher for two months
before transitioning to the strategy independently. The teacher
continues to
model the strategy, uses the strategy with shared and guided reading
and then requires students to use summarizing and self-questioning
while reading independently.
Lesson
2 :
Questions Game
Purpose:
This format takes readers back into the text several times, which aids
in overall comprehension. With each exchange, students
articulate more complex questions and continue to pursue answers to
questions that are still nagging them. Because lack of
background knowledge hampers students’ initial ability to ask
questions, this activity gives students enough background knowledge to
move into complex texts that will develop their questioning
capabilities.
Resources:
nonfiction, textbooks,
novels,
short stories,
poetry
Procedure:
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Each student reads a short piece text and writes down three questions
(10 minutes)
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Students
choose a partner, exchange questions, and try to answer each other’s
questions in writing (5 min)
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Partners
sit together and discuss answers. After discussing, they form
form three new questions. These can be extensions of original
questions, new ones raised during discussion, or unanswered ones from
before. (10-15 min)
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Each
two-person team exchanges questions with another two-person team.
Partners discuss questions received and attempt to answer them.
(10 min)
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These
two two-person teams now join together and discuss the six questions
represented by their group. (10 min)
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When
time is called, each four-person group comes up with one question that
is still unanswered or that they would like to bring up to the whole
class.
Hint:
Taking off the title of the reading enhances questioning
because sometimes the title narrows down the context and therefore the
range of questions.
Yellow Brick Road,2000
Lesson
3 :
Using Question Webs to
Expand Thinking
This
lesson works well before, during or after study of a subject such as
the Civil War, quadratic equations, rivers, etc. It works for all
subject matters.
Resources:
Young adult publications, newspaper articles, teacher lessons,
picture books
Procedure:
In
heterogeneous groups of four, students will generate "Team
Research Questions". Teacher will write questions on the board.
Have the groups choose 6 or 7
"Team
Research Questions" (global
questions) they would like to try to answer. (Example: Why
was it called the Underground Railroad?) Or have each group
research the same global question.
In their groups of 4 or 5 each
group chooses one of their questions to research.
Have
groups write their question on a large sheet of butcher paper or chart
paper in a
bubble in the middle, to create a semantic web.
As
students research their question, have
each team member write pertinent information on a line off the bubble
and sign their name underneath. The goal is to build an answer from
all the tidbits of information.
Display
the poster sheets around the room and allow students time to read the
information to determine a plausible answer.
Strategies that Work pg.92
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